Thief of Time

“Haah!”

Light flashed, and the gigantic stack of metal plates jerked once. A red-hot line ran through the stack of metal three seconds later, letting out an agonised hiss at the same time. Flourishing her sword twice, Dia slid the blade back into its sheath.

Mana coursed through her body, mana generated from six and a near-complete mana circuit, and her muscles twitched. The bisected pile of metal expanded rapidly in her vision as she closed the distance easily, and mana-coated fists smashed into the smoking pile of metal thirty-odd times, before she withdrew her right arm once.

A shockwave shook the air, and she punched out with full force. The entire stack of metal turned into dust, which was swiftly swept away by the howling wind.

“Alright. Looks like this is the physical limit for mid-ranked folders, right?” Dia muttered, before looking around at the training field. Her right arm was still ringing like a bell, although there wasn’t any sound at all, but there wasn’t much in the way of pain.

Shaking her right arm, she turned to look at the others. None of them had much in the way of practical combat, other than Risti, who seemed to be playing around with an assortment of weapons. Her opponent, Uncle Rubia, was currently nursing his abdomen, and the fact that Risti looked quite sheepish was probably proof that she was the cause…

She turned to Farah next, who was busy waving her sword over and over again. It looked cool, but without an actual opponent, Dia wasn’t sure if her combat ability would improve all that much. Nonetheless, knowing that her training had formed a nice foundation for Farah was quite uplifting, since all the basic strokes that Farah was practicing right now were quite good.

As for Schwarz…

She shook her head. The bartender liked to use things like dirt, throwing knives, alcohol that would ignite in mid-air and just weird weapons all around. He was, however, at least skilled with wielding the sword with his right arm; his left arm was apparently dedicated to all sorts of weird and funny tricks that could catch an opponent off-guard.

Still, would a Distortion really fall for petty tricks?

That was a really good question, but Schwarz also had all kinds of artefacts that were specialised in killing. Most of them were one-use artefacts, and Dia herself wasn’t sure what he actually had, but without the ability to use them in normal spars, Schwarz usually ended up as the punching bag for everyone…

Unless he played dirty, at which point he would stand victorious instead.

She took in the scene of their final training. Time was running out for them — the prediction that her brother had come up with would soon come true. Her understanding of her brother’s prophecy was that the Distortion would appear in Licencia a week from now, before gaining a true form after devouring enough people, all of which would happen in a day.

Licencia would be destroyed, turned into a place where only squirming white maggots and insects roamed. No one would be able to contend against it, at least until the Moons took action, by which time the entire sovereignty would have been expunged of all life.

Regretfully, there was no time for them to take their Third Tutorial. For one, there was the definite risk of failure, as exemplified by Claud, and secondly, burning the last few bits of their seventh mana circuit was proving to be quite the challenge.

There wasn’t much time left.

She thought about her brother again, the idiot who had thrown everything away just to save the sovereignty, and then dabbed at her eyes twice.

“You idiot.”

After scolding him a few more times, she glanced at the fine pile of metal dust that had clumped together on the ground, and then turned away from it. There was no point in training anymore; what mattered was the more immediate boosts to her combat power.

Taking a seat at a table that had breakfast laid out on it, Dia used the Refresher and picked up a cookie. The others were also training really hard, spurred on by the fact that her brother had perished and that there was a massive threat looming on the horizon.

“How’s the breakfast, Lady Dia?”

Dia glanced at the maid and smiled. “It’s lovely. Please relay my thanks to the chef.”

Nibbling the cookie, Dia turned her eyes to the luxurious desserts that she had missed. While Schwarz was a good cook, he generally sucked at making the sweeter stuff, since his main specialty was putting things on a grill. In fact, rather than saying that he was a good cook, Schwarz was more of a good griller…

“Right, I forgot about the exclusive bartender thing…although he probably doesn’t want to take it up right now,” Dia muttered to herself, before noting down the matter.

Risti and Farah joined her when she was done with the fourth cookie, and without any preamble, produced their own Refreshers. Her father had all kinds of quality of life artefacts, and no one had held back in taking them. In fact, Dia even managed to snag a storage ring, a particularly magical kind too. All she had to do was to focus on the ring, and a bunch of images would appear. After that, by mentally selecting the desired image, it would appear in her ring-wearing hand. There were so many applications for this ring that Dia couldn’t help but think that Schwarz’s approach to battle was actually good…so she bugged her dad to give Schwarz one too.

And then the others.

So everyone ended up having a nice ring to put their items in, which was far more convenient than backpacks.

It was a shame she couldn’t get one each for the absent Seekers of Life, but four was really a good haul too.

“You ready to kill a Distortion personally?” Farah asked.

Dia nodded. “I think I’m ready to fight on the level of a hexa-folder. Sure, I don’t look as pretty as Emperor Grandis or the other sovereigns when they’re in full combat gear, but I’ll have you know that we can probably fight on a similar level.”

She paused. “You guys don’t need to be this worried too. We’ve all but caught up to the premier combatants of the entire world. A measly Distortion isn’t going to stop us!”

“Your hands are trembling,” Risti pointed out.

“Damn it.” Dia picked up another cookie and nibbled it with a vengeance. “Sorry.”

Risti chuckled. “It’s understandable, though. To be honest, the whole story sounds quite insane. Your brother foresaw the end…wait, how did he know that you were the key to beating this Distortion? After all, what he saw must have been the future, right? And as far as I know, Future Sight does not tell someone the solution to overcoming future crises.”

“Eh?”

“Eh?”

“I was wondering that too,” Schwarz, who had joined them soundlessly, remarked. “Is it a coincidence that we all thought about this at the day before our departure?”

The maid who was standing next to Dia looked around, and then said, “Should I send for the duke?”

“…Yeah. Actually, I think that’s also pretty damn important.” Dia paused. “Ahem. It’s important. Send for him.”

The maid scuttled off.

“Huh. Is it normal for maids to actively talk about their presence when they overhear sensitive stuff?” Risti asked. “Usually, I see them being put to death…”

“That’s what lower nobles do. You must remember that the maids and servants that serve high nobles generally have a status of their own too. Can’t put them to death…not that anyone should,” Dia replied. “Anyway…it was quite obvious, but the whole thing was clearly…forced or something. I mean, I have never heard of a skill turning anyone into the featureless thing.”

“So you haven’t found out anything either, have you?”

Dia nodded. “My father’s trying to figure out what happened too, but…”

She closed her eyes. Her father’s haggard figure appeared in her mind, and she winced. For some reason, she believed that the divinities had something to do with her brother’s state back then.

It was possible that they had even granted him the vision and the solution necessary to overcome this crisis.

The maid came running back at that moment. “Milady, the Duke is also aware of this issue. He tells you to ignore it for now and to focus on what you need to do.”

“…Okay.” Dia took a deep breath. “Alright. In other words, he doesn’t know what to do either. Well, whatever. We should prepare for our departure. Time is tight, after all. Is the teleportation formation ready?”

“It should be,” Schwarz replied. “Let’s polish off our breakfast and head over afterwards. Hmm. It’s a bit early for a drink, but should we have a farewell toast? It’ll be the kind that you guys can drink, don’t worry.”

“A pick-me-up before everyone goes south, huh?” Farah chuckled. “Sure.”

“Count me in.” Risti paused. “Dia, being sober all the time can suck too.”

“Like I’m going to get drunk,” Dia replied. “But a few cups will do.”